Machine for paring nuts, &amp;c.



1;]. GORMLEY AND E. L. THURBER.

MACHINE FOR FARING NUTS, &c. APPLICATION FILED ARJI. 1920.

1 ,365,397, Patented Jan. 11,- 1921.

4 SHEETS-SHEEI I.

, Q 1 QI BY a 8 A ORNEY 1.1. GORMLEY AND E. L. THURBER.

MACHINE FOR PARING NUTS, &c.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 1. 1920.

1.]. GORMLEY AND E. L. THURBER.

MACHlNEfOR PARING NUTS, 61c.

' APPLICATION FILED MAR. 1. 1920.

Patented Jan. 11,1921.

4 SHEETSSHEET 3- 1 NTO 5 m1 AZORNEYZ- 21 1 au 1W2 a .J.G1ORIV|LEY AND E. L. THURBER. momma FOR PARIN G NUTS, aw. APPLICATION FILED MAR. 1. I920. 1,365,397. Patented Jan. 11,1921.

4 SHEET$$HEEI 4- UNITED sures PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES J. GORMLEY AND EDWINL. THUBBER, or BRooxrYN, NEW Y MACHINE FOR PARING NUTS, &c.

Application filed March 1, 1920. Serial No.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JAMES J. GORMLEY and DWIN L. THURBER, citizens of the United States, residing in the borough of Brooklyn, the city of New York, in the State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Paring Nuts, &c., of which the following is a specification, reference being had to .e accompanying drawings forming a part hereof.

In another application of the present applicants for Letters Patent of the United States, Serial No. 349,943, filed January 7, 1920, there is shown and described one form of a machine devised with particular reference to its use in the removal of the closely adhering, brown skin from the unbroken meat of the cocoanut after the hard shell has been cracked off, although the machine ob viously is capable of use for other similar purposes. In that machine each nut is delivered to the holding device by which it is passed through anannular knife carrier, and is discharged after the operation of paring has been completed, being subjected to the paring operation. In the .machine shown and described in the present case several sets of nut holding devices are mounted upon a carrier so that as h nut is received it is carried onward t1on is eontinued while another set of holdmg devlc'es is moved up to the feeding chute in readiness to receive another nut and the first nut is discharged at a point beyond the feeding chute. tion. of the machineis greatly increased. In the present case, moreover, the nut holding and paring devices are designed with reference to their application to a .carrler and their operation under the conditions referred to. he invention will be explained more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which the machlne c osen as an embodiment of the'invention is illustrated and in which,

igure 1 is a perspective View, largely in outline, illustratmg the application of the nut holding devices to an endless carrier, the

feeding chute being shown partly in section.

Fig. 2 is a view partly in side elevat on and. partly in longitudinal sectlon, showing a portion of the carrier and its guldeway,

Specification of Letters Patent.

-ter. I a suitable frame a, bearing but one nut at a time each set of devices In this manner the produc-' gagement with the lateral Patented Jan. 11, 1921. 362,538.

the knife, and one vices.

Fig. 3 is a top View shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a view partly in transverse sectlon and partly in elevation looking toward the left hand in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a detail view mainly in horizontal se'c t1o1 1,' of one member of one of the nut grlppmg devlces, on a larger scalethanthat of 1g. 3.

Fig. 6 is a view of the nut as seen in elevation from the right hand in Fig. 5.

The carrier may be of any. suitable charac- As indicated in Fig. 1 it may comprise pedestals a in which are mounted sha s-a chain wheels a fixed on the shafts, a d fixed on one of the which have a relatively movement.

To the chains (1, are secured at intervals plates 6 arranged in pairs to support corresponding pedestals The plates or bases 7) are guided in ways a carried by the frame a. Each pedestal I of each pair, supports the devlces for grlppmg and rotating the nut during the operation of paring. The construction of these devices is the same for of each pair and a description of one setof' devices will therefore suflice for all, it being understood that the two sets of devices of each pair are reversed and opposed so as to act upon a nut-between them.

The rotary gripping head comprises a chuck 0 provided with suitable Spurs 0 for set of nut holding deof some of the parts engagement with the corresp onding end of the nut, and opposed gripping arms 0 provided with suitable spurs,

as at c, for ensurfaces of the nut, between its pole and its equator. The chuck c is secured to rods 0 which are extended rearwardly through two plates cand c and receive nuts or caps 0 to limit their forward movement under the influence of a coiled spring 0 which is located between the head 0 and the plate a. The bell crank arms 0 are pivoted on the plate 0' and have con nected thereto rods c which also extend rearwardly through the plate 0 and are headed and receive nuts or caps, as at 0 to limit their forward movement-with respect gripping devices Z) and has at its lower end a pinion d adapty ed to engage a rack d secured to a portion a of the frame a. The rank (i does not extend the entire length of the frame a but has only such length and is so located that while the nut is engaged by the nut holding devices and is moved past the knife hereinafter referred to the shaft d and sleeve d will be rotated and will cause the nut to ro tate, as hereinafter described. If the gears 03' and d of the two pedestals are dilferently positionedrelatively, as indicated in Fig. 2,

it is obvious that, in order that both sets of nut holding devices shall rotate in the same e, is compelled to rotate with the sleeve, d 7

direction, there must be provided one rack d for engagement with the right hand pinion d, and anopposite rack (1 for engagement with'the pinion d of the left hand pedestal, it being understood that the two shaftsd are displaced substantially at their lower ends to permit of the engagement of one pinion a l with the rack (i and of the other pinion d with the rack (1 Within-the sleeve d is a second sleeve 0 which is pressed forward by a spiral spring through a pin and slot connection eiand has secured to it at-its forward end the plate 0 passing through the plate 0". On the sleeve e is fixed a grooved collar e which is engagedby a finger f projecting from a rod f mounted in the pedestal and pressed, forward by a spring f Preferably two spring pressed rods f are provided, in order to secure movement of-the collar 6 withj out binding, and eachrod is connected, out side the pedestal, with a lever '7 pivoted on the'pedestals Each lever i isconnected at its lower end, through a. pin and "slot connection f, with a corresponding lever' f, also pivoted'on the pedestal. At its lower end eac lever f? is arranged to co-act with a cam fwhich is on the frame member a]:

When, in the-movement of the carrier plateb, with the chain'afl'the lever i strikes the 'szm' f the two levers are from thesition indicated byfull lines 2 t0 the'position indicated by broken l nes;

and the rods-f are drawn rearwardlyfthe sleeve eand the plate 6, being drawn -rear-' wardly at the same time?" Through the rods 0 the gripping arms a are thus on their. pivots from the gripping position,

shown at the left hand in tothe open" position s own at the-right.

-Iright strike the'oorrespon 1 the. gripper arms are'opened and then, as the levers F pass'fi'om the cams f, the right rotating the nut .w1

As soon as the levers f have passed over the cams f the rods f are returned by the Springs 7 totheir initial position and the gripping arms 0 are returned by the springs 0 to their closed or gripping positions.

The spindle o above mentioned, is seated and movable endwise in the bore of a spindle a which is secured at its outer end to the sleeve d, as shown in Fig. 5, and supports the spring 0.

Theplate 6 which forms the base of the pedestal b, is slotted, as at b, to receive the screws b by which the pedestal is secured to the base plate I), so as to permit relative adjustment of. the two pedestals toward and from each other, to suit nuts of substantially different sizes. The nuts to be pared are assorted-somewhat according to length of the major axis and by this adjustmentof .the pedestals the machine is suited to different grades. Minor differences in length of the nuts'are accommodatedby the yielding support of the chucks 0 through the sliding of the rods '0 in the plates 0 and 0 and the action of the s ring 0 The'knife h is of horses oe-shape, as shown in Fig. 3, having a blade h supported by and spaced from a block k The latter is carried by arod 'h which is fixed adjustably in the upper end of an arm h, pivoted at its lower end, as at h, on the by a spring h connected to the frame and to the swinging arm'h. -In 'the operation of the machine thenuts are delivered,"one at-a time, through a chute is, shown in part only in Fig. 1, upon a suitable support, which .might be the hand of the operator, with their major axes substantially-in line with the axes of the two chucks 0 of the pair of chucks which, in the travel of the chain a, have then reached side of the'frafne a,'the knife being pulled .toward the axis of the rotation of the nut substantially the position indicated in. Fig.

1, but with the left hand end or pole of the nut-slightl to the right ofthe plane. in which the stand' .then with its right hand side 'fe k swings, thefkmie-blade across't e axisof-the nut. The nut being held in thisposition for an instant, the levers fof the approachingupedestal on the' gcams f and hand chuck a'engages the right hand-end of the nut and theright-hand-gripper arms a close upon the nut. Immediately the'pinion "11 of the right hand pedestal is moved into n e'sh'with the stationary rack d; and the right hand gripping devices are rotated,-

't them. As the movement ofthe nut toward the left, with both pedestals, continues, and the rotation of the nntialso oontinues,'the nut-is rotated and inpved lpngltudinally with respect to the knife which acts to pare the nut from the left hand pole to the region of the equator. When the nut has reached this position, about as represented inFig. 2, the left hand gripper arms 0 which have been opened by the action of the cams f in coiiperation with the left hand levers f and are still held open, or permitted to close upo the nut and at the same time the left ha d chuck a is permitted to have a relative ovement toward the right hand under the 'nfiuence of the springs e and f and the left hand chuck 0 therefore engages the nut at the same time with or shortly before the engagement of the left hand gripper arms a of the nut. In this manner the nut becomes engaged by the left hand gripping devices and immediately thereafter the right hand and gripping devices are opened and withdrawn relatively so that the nut is released therefrom. Fig. 2 of the drawings shows the relative positions of the parts in which the nut has just been grasped by the left hand gripping devices and released by the right hand gripping devices. It will be understood that the portion of the nut which has been pared is engaged by the left hand gripping devices so that as the nut continues its movement toward the left and at the same time is rotated through the en.

gagement of the left hand pinion a! with' the fixed rack d the rotation and forward movement of the nut in contact with the knife are continued until the remainder of the nut has been pared. It will be understood that as the nut rotates and moves forward in contact with the knife, the point of contact of the knife with the nut changes from one side to the other so that the nut is completely pared from one pole to the other.

Various changes in details of construction arrangement can be made to suit diffent conditions of use and the invention, therefore, is not restricted to the precise construction shown and described herein except as pointed out in the accompanying claims.

We claim as our invention 2,,-

1. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a supporting frame, a conveyer, means mounted on the conveyer for grasping and rotating the body to be operated upon and a knife mounted on the frame, the knife being mounted to swing toward and fromthe axis of rotation and held yieldingly toward such axis.

In a machine of the character described, the combination of a supporting frame, a conveyer, means mounted on the conveyer for grasping and rotating the body to be operated upon and a knife mounted ,on the frame, the knife being mounted to swing toward and from the axis of rotation'and held yieldingly toward such axis, and having a the combination of general horseshoe-shape, whereby the knife may contact with the polar and lateral surfaces of the body.

3. In a machine of the character described, the combination of'a supporting frame, a conveyer, gripping arms mounted on the conveyer and adapted to grasp the body to be operated upon and means to actuate the arms to grasp and release the body as the arms move with the conveyer.

4. In a machine-of the character described, the combination of a supporting frame, a conveyer, gripping arms mounted on the conveyer and adapted to graspthe body to be operated upon, levers connected to the arms to operate and cams fixed on the frame and arranged to co-operate with the levers to actuate the, arms.

5. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotating shaft, a plate carried by said shaft, oppositely disposed gripping arms ivoted on said plate, a second plate longitudinally movable on said shaft, operative connections between said second plate and said arms, and means to shift said second plate longitudinally.

6. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotating shaft, a plate carried by said shaft, oppositely disposed gripping arms pivoted on said plate, a second plate longitudinally movable on said shaft, rods connected tosaid arms and in operative engagement with said second. plate, and means to shift sa1d second plate longitudinally.

In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotating shaft, a plate carried by said shaft, oppositel disposed gripping arms pivoted on said p ate, a second plate longltudinally shaft, operative connections between sa1d second plate and said arms, levers and operating connections between said levers and said second plate, and cams in operative re lation with said levers.

8. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotating head, a chuck yieldingly mounted in said head, oppositely disposed gripping arms pivotally mounted on said head, and means to actuate said arms to engage and release the body to be operated upon. 1

9. In a machine of the character described, a pedestal, a sleeve mounted in said pedestal, means to rotate said sleeve, a shaft movable longitudinally movable on saidin said sleeve and engaged therewith to be rotated thereby, gripping arms carried by said shaft, a plate mounted on said sleeve,

operating connections between said plate and said arms, and means to move said plate longitudinally on said shaft.

In a machine of the character described, the combination of a pedestal, a

sleeve mounted in said pedestal, means to rotate said sleeve, a shaft movable longitudinally in said sleeve and engaged there with to be rotated thereb a spr1ng pressing said shaft normally orward, gripping arms carried by said shaft, a plate mounted on said sleeve, operating connections between said plate and said arms, and means tov grlppmg arms carried by the pedestals.

mbination of a frame, a con- '12. In a machine of the character de-I scribed the combination of-a frame, a conveyer, apair of pedestals mounted on the conveyer, oppositely. disposed sets of'grip- -,ping arms carried by the pedestals, and

meanstd operate said sets of gripping. arms in succession, wherebythe body operated upon is grasped by one set of arms, then v grasped by the second set, then released by the first "set, and finally released by the second set. v

This specification signed this 16th day of Feby., A. D. 1920.

' JAMES J. GORMLEY; EDWIN L. .THURBER. 

